Possible Denial Paragraph 117(9)(d)

[RobertoMags]

I received an email from immigration saying that i might be excluded from family class. Their reason is that me and my wife were living together since February 2010 and during their application for visa I was not examined and was not declared as common law partner. My wife obtained permanent reidency in Canada on November 2011. I stated on my application for visa we submitted last may is that we lived together since Feb 2010, the reason is I just don't want to lie (might become a problem in the future).

Our take on this is that we were advice to not include/declare me as a common law partner since there is no document or proof that we are living together since the name of the house that we are living together is not in our name and we do not have any joint account of any sort. And even though I was working she is still a dependent of her parents because she was still studying and all her expenses still comes from them. Do we have a chance on this? What are the documents do I need to present to prove that we are not a common law partner even though we are living together? Please help. Thanks

 

[RobertoMags]

Please help. If I get denied in this it might rip our family apart

 

[RobertoMags]

Any help for a difficult case? I would appreciate it very much. Thanks!

 

[RobertoMags]

Please help if I still got a fighting chance on this. I am currently writing the letter that I will send to the immigration along with documentation of the house that we live in together which is not in our name and the bills which are also not in our name.

Any suggestion would be very helpful. Thanks a lot.

 

[scylla]

If you were living together for at least a year - then from CIC's perspective, you were common law. You've already declared that you were living together for over a year before your wife immigrated in your PR application. So I think it's going to be very difficult to prove to CIC that you were not common law. To prove this, you would have to show that you did not live together for a year before she immigrated to Canada. The documents you would need to present are documents that prove you were living elsewhere and not at the same address as your wife.

If you don't have this type of evidence, then I would honestly start looking into how you can immigrate to Canada independently. I think it's unfortunately unlikely that spousal sponsorship is going to work out for you.

 

[RobertoMags]

Here is the definition of Common law partner according to Guide 3999 in cic website

Common-law partner Refers to a person who is living in a conjugal relationship with another person (opposite or same sex), and has done so continuously for a period of at least one year. A conjugal relationship exists when there is a significant degree of commitment between two people.
This can be shown with evidence that the couple share the same home, that they support each other financially and emotionally, that they have children together, or that they present themselves in public as a couple.

Common-law partners who are unable to live together or appear in public together because of legal restrictions in their home country or who have been separated for reasons beyond their control (for example, civil war or armed conflict) may still qualify and should be included on the application.

We do not support each other financially and even though we live together in a house we don't own the house so we cannot provide a document saying that we are common law partner which is the reason we didn't declare it in their visa application.

 

[DuberBlue]

Please do NOT consider me an expert here, because I try not to offer advice outside of my own realm of experience, but I'm wondering if the OP would be better off withdrawing his PR application and re-submitting a fresh one where he clarifies his marital status and does not say he has been common law prior to that.

If he actually got married after (or during) his wife's PR process and does not want to claim common-law before that, then it would not be a misrepresentation for him to not have been declared in his wife's application, right?

I'm just thinking that a withdrawn app would mean that he wouldn't have to claim he had a previous denied PR app, because his withdrew it on his own.

I'm going on a lot of assumptions here, but I'm just trying to see if there are viable options for him.

 

[RobertoMags]

Thanks for the response DuberBlue. I would like to clarify your statement below. Are you saying I should not respond to their email or appeal to that. They have given me 45 days to appeal and send documents that I was declared as common law partner. However I was not really declared and what I think I could do is to prove that we really did it on purpose because we thought this whole time that we are not a common law partner and we do not belong to that category.

Also for another info they went back here for a 1 month vacation and we got married just last January.

 

[Alurra71]

Because you stated that you were living with your wife since Feb 2010 you have excluded yourself from 'family class sponsorship'. Additionally, your wife's PR may now come into question because of misrepresentation. Do not go looking for definitions of what common law means. You would need to SPECIFICALLY look up what common law means to CIC, not anywhere else. CIC follows their own set of rules and for them, common law means living together in cohabitation for 12 months or more. Your wife should have declared you as a common law spouse, but non-accompanying at the time, which would not have excluded you.

Because someone else gave you erroneous information, it is not going to help you. CIC is going to essentially give you the "ignorance of the law is not an excuse" speech and then likely deny you access to the family class stream.

Right now, the only thing I can tell you would be to see if you qualify to immigrate to Canada using another method, perhaps FSW. At this point it does appear that you are being excluded from family class so your wife will never be able to sponsor you.

*edited a few words for spelling and clarity**

 

[jomz]

Our take on this is that we were advice to not include/declare me as a common law partner since there is no document or proof that we are living together since the name of the house that we are living together is not in our name and we do not have any joint account of any sort.

There are not too many details in your post. But did your common law partner obtain the PR as a dependent of her parents? If yes, the reason why you were advised not be included/declared at time of that PR application is because if you were included your partner would not be a dependent of her parents, meaning she would not be able to get PR status via their application.

Unfortunately the effect is now what it is. As Alurra71 mentions in the post too, you need to qualify to immigrate to Canada using another method.

 

[mikeymyke]

You have 0% chance of overturning this decision because the fact is you lived together 12 months, regardless your spouse was a dependent of parents or not, and regardless whether the house and bills were under someone else's name or not.

You should take up a skilled trade for 2 years, apply as a provincial nominee, and it will be an almost guaranteed entry into Canada because the LMO for a skilled trade job will be very positive due to the skills shortage in this country.

 

[Rob_TO]

Please do NOT consider me an expert here, because I try not to offer advice outside of my own realm of experience, but I'm wondering if the OP would be better off withdrawing his PR application and re-submitting a fresh one where he clarifies his marital status and does not say he has been common law prior to that.

If he actually got married after (or during) his wife's PR process and does not want to claim common-law before that, then it would not be a misrepresentation for him to not have been declared in his wife's application, right?

I'm just thinking that a withdrawn app would mean that he wouldn't have to claim he had a previous denied PR app, because his withdrew it on his own.

All apps are kept "on the record" with CIC. I believe when you submit a PR app or any other type of visa request, the forms are electronically scanned and stored in a big database. So the fact he has already stated to CIC that he had been living together with his wife since Feb 2010, means even if he were to withdrawal the application and submit a new one he can't suddenly change this declaration. It would be obvious when they look at his first application and then the 2nd... what the reason is.

He is unfortunately barred from the family class and has practically no chance to undo this decision. In addition to looking for alternate ways to immigrate to Canada, they will also need to really hope that the VO processing his file doesn't report his wife for misrepresentation on her own application and possibly take steps to revoke her PR.

 

[charliem]

If you filed an application indicating you lived together from Feb 2010, changing that position would make things worse.
You may want to look at alternative channels of immigrating.

 

[RobertoMags]

I am not going to say that we didn't live from feb 2010 which I already stated on the initial application, what I'm gonna say is that we cannot prove that we are a common law partner since we cannot prove it. There is no documentation to prove it and she is still depending on her parents.

 

[Sweden]

I am not going to say that we didn't live from feb 2010 which I already stated on the initial application, what I'm gonna say is that we cannot prove that we are a common law partner since we cannot prove it. There is no documentation to prove it and she is still depending on her parents.

you can try - but it most likely won't work. CL definition is living together as a couple for 12 months, so you were CL. Whether you have the proofs of it or not, that's irrelevant, because you already self declared in your application that you were living together as a couple. So if you can prove that you were NOT living together (despite what you have written in the application), then you might have a chance. Not being able to prove that you were living together doesn't come into consideration: you told CIC that you were living together.
You can try and explain why you decided not to declare CL on your wife's application, but as other posters have said : CIC will likely tell you that you are not supposed to ignore the law etc., and deny your PR application.
In addition, I really hope for you that they don't look into your wife's PR. If she got her PR as a dependent to her parents, not only she committed misrepresentation by not declaring herself as CL, BUT also : she would not have qualified as dependent of your parents (even if she financially depended on them, but that's not the same thing), as having a CL partner would have excluded her from that category.
Sweden